Gorgeous new album from Koji Asano, quite different from his usual
fare, as this is a highly dynamic piece of noise electronica. Tokyo Sunrise is a single 55-minute
track to be listened to immersively. We’re far from the often static and highly
conceptual works of Asano; this record goes into something much more visceral
and improvised, closer to the man’s live sets. And is that electric guitar I
hear? Recommended to Merzbow fans, among others. By the way, this is the third
release in what can now be called, judging by the covers, a series of
autoportraits. [Below: A two-minute excerpt with video.]

I don’t usually review releases in groups, but these are all one-sided
picture discs released simultaneously in Dekorder’s 10th anniversary
series (vols. 5-7), and what I received is a CD-R that grouped them together,
so might as well... The Black to Comm volume (Marc Richter’s solo project) is a
strong and scary 14-minute piece – silence, reverberations, a leaded
atmosphere, very good. The Excerpter (No-Neck Blues Band’s John Fell Ryan) is
mediocre its lacklustre retroelectronic pieces. The pick of the crop is All Things Being Equal, the first
Experimental Audio Research (Spacemen 3’s Pete Kember) release since 2005! And
it’s a strong 16-minute piece, immersive, dynamic even though it’s mostly
drone-like and ambient. A masterful work. Let’s hope it’s the prelude to a
full-fledged comeback!

Lean Left carries on – the free improvisation quartet formed by the duo
of Ken Vandermark and Paal Nilssen-Love and The Ex’s guitarists Andy Moor and
Terrie Hessels has been more than a flash in the pan. This third CD was
recorded live in September 2012. There is 72 minutes worth of improvisations
shifting between fire music and free rock, with some interesting “instant song”
moments (“Gada Ale” has everything needed to eventually evolve into a The Ex
song; we’ll see). The album does get a bit tiresome, and you gotta like
testosterone – this quartet will never be of the quiet and thoughtful kind –
but what energy!